Every winter, kids who live in snowy areas of the nation are naturally drawn to the precipitation for its many applications limited only by their imagination. While building snowmen and making snow angels are always popular, the ubiquitous snowball fight usually wins out in the end.

Unfortunately, as one eighth grader in Chicago recently found out, taking part in such an innocent game could ruin the rest of your life in today’s America.

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The incident took place last week when a local police officer claimed the young teen threw a snowball at him. While Chicago is infamously unsympathetic to those who wish to exercise their Second Amendment rights, it appears Windy City authorities are similarly oversensitive to “weapons” of all types – even those made of snow.

While the cop said he was hit on the arm by the fluffy projectile, the student claims he did not hit anyone. The officer’s cruiser, however, might have been struck by the snowball.

“It made me mad,” the boy said. “He said the snowball hit him but it hit the car, not him.”

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According to the child’s account, his school’s dean turned him in to authorities, who filed formal charges against him. He now faces a felony count of aggravated battery against a peace officer, a development that has understandably rocked his family.

“He kept trying to tell the officer that he didn’t do it,” the potential felon’s mother said, “but they didn’t believe him. He was standing on the corner; there was a whole crowd of kids. It’s so crazy.”

She recalled the officer’s phone call, during which he told her the child “threw a snowball at the car and the officer was in the car.”

Her son has “never been in trouble before,” she said.

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In addition to handing him over to authorities, dean Lenard Robertson apparently approved a five-day suspension for the act of youthful indiscretion. He declined to comment to the Chicago Tribune for its report on the incident.

As children continue to learn revisionist history and age-inappropriate sex education in America’s public schools, traditional rites of passage are increasingly becoming not only passé but subject to draconian punishments. A boy’s natural predilection toward weapons – whether chewing a pastry into a rough approximation of a gun or tossing a snowball – are being described as acts of open hostility.

While a stern lecture from the officer would have more than sufficed in sending this child a clear message, he is now facing serious repercussions — including a stint in juvenile detention and an interruption in his education from which he might never recover.

Such a course of action will all but guarantee he will gravitate toward a life of crime much more serious than throwing snowballs.